“Geography is a representation in picture of the whole known world together with the phenomena contained therein, it differs from Chorography in that Chorography, selecting certain places from the whole, treats more fully the particulars of each by themselves – even dealing with the smallest conceivable localities, such as harbors, farms, villages, river courses, and such like. It is the prerogative of Geography to show the known habitable earth as a unit in itself, how it is situated and what is its nature, and it deals with those features likely to be mentioned in a general description of the earth, such as the larger towns and great cities, mountain ranges and principle rivers […]

The end of Chorography is to deal separately with a part of the whole, as if one were to paint the eye or ear by itself. The task of Geography is to survey the whole in its just proportions, as one would the entire head, and afterwards those detailed features which portraits and pictures may require, giving them proportion in relation to one another so that their correct measurement apart can be seen by examining them, to note whether they form the whole or a part of the picture. Accordingly therefore it is not unworthy of Chorography, our out of its province, to describe the smallest details of places, while Geography only deals with regions and their general features. […] Chorography is most concerned with what kind of places those are which it describes, not how large they are in extent. Its concern is to paint a true likeness, and not merely to give exact position and size. Geography looks at the position rather than the quality […] Chorography needs an artist, and no one presents it rightly unless he is an artist…”

Claudius Ptolemy quoted in Volume II, Visual Culture: Histories, Archaeologies and Genealogies of Visual Culture. Eds. Morra, J, Smith. M, (Oxon, Routledge: 2006), p.17‐18.